Letter: War on Confederate symbols undermining democracy

In response to Hannah Gore's "Other Voices" piece entitled "Confederate Flag is inherently racist – ban it," she wrote "it's an undeniable fact that the Confederate Flag today, along with any other Confederate symbol, is inextricably connected to white supremacy." There are no facts to support this statement, she is simply repeating the same false narrative the self-ordained liberal media/politicians/activists used after a lone gunman committed the Charleston church shootings in 2015.

She brings up the 1.35 percent black drop out rate compared to 0.8 for white students in grades nine through 12 for Carroll County Public Schools and wonders how the flag might contribute to that. Following her logic, Baltimore City schools in 2016 had a drop out rate of of 14 percent and a graduation rate of 70.7 percent, so city schools must be full of Confederate flags.

If Confederate symbols caused racial unrest, then obviously removing them would solve the problem. But, removing Confederate monuments in Baltimore (at night) solved nothing: murders went up to 344 in 2017; none murdered by white supremacists.

Gore writes that because 84 percent of students in Carroll County are white, in every single classroom students of color are more isolated and uncomfortable than white students. What about white students in Baltimore City or Prince George's County? Maybe they feel isolated and uncomfortable with all the crime, gangs and shootings in their school districts.

Let's look at what's relevant today and not something from two centuries ago. We are at war with Muslim terrorists. What is conservatives were offended by Muslim women wearing the hijab and wanted it banned? They would be severely chastised and told they are violating the woman's First Amendment rights. So, why don't supports of the Confederate flag have First Amendment rights?

You better be carefuly banning anything in a democracy, or you will wake up one day, no longer in a democracy. This crusade against Confederate symbolism has nothing to do with the Civil War: It's a self-righteous liberal movement to undermine our democracy, change history, divide the country and advance their agenda.